22-mile oil plume discovered in Gulf

More bad news from the Gulf:

Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles from the leaking BP wellhead northeast toward an underwater canyon whose currents feed sealife in the waters off Florida.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science’s Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume reported since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20. The find was announced Thursday.

The cloud was nearing a large underwater canyon whose currents fuel the foodchain in Gulf waters off Florida and could potentially wash the tiny plants and animals that feed larger organisms in a stew of toxic chemicals, another researcher said.

I admit to a bit of a ‘coming to Jesus’ moment following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the revelations of both environmental catastrophe and crony capitalism and corruption that made it possible. The environmental impact of the spill surprised me. I had no idea a spill would be this hard to contain or that this much oil would be released into the Ocean. I think this has taken a lot of people by surprise. The world may be rich in resources, and it may also be a resilient place, but it’s comprised of many fragile things as well. The ecosystems effected by this spill may never recover. It’s appalling and frightening and sad.

In any case, I’ve been having a lot of these epiphanies lately. The oil spill and its implications are just one among many hard truths this nation faces.